Online nature quiz sees 1,200 take part

People from across the world, including London, California and Malaysia, and those from various parts of the country, including Ladakh, Nainital, Pune, Bengaluru, West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala, among others, joined the quiz,” said Nikhil Devasar, founder, Delhibird Foundation.

Nature enthusiasts from across India and other countries on Sunday participated in The Great Indian Nature Quiz, which was conducted online for the first time. The quiz, organised by the Delhibird Foundation, was held between 5pm and 6.30pm on Zoom and Facebook.

A White-Browed Fantail, a rarely-seen bird, spotted at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary. (Sanjeev Verma/HT File Photo)

“It was one of the biggest nature quizzes held in the country. Around 1,200 people participated in the quiz; we had to turn down at least 600 more people who joined in a bit after 5pm and were in waiting. People from across the world, including London, California and Malaysia, and those from various parts of the country, including Ladakh, Nainital, Pune, Bengaluru, West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala, among others, joined the quiz,” said Nikhil Devasar, founder, Delhibird Foundation, one of the oldest birding clubs in the city.

Participants who gave the correct answers the fastest won rewards. The first prize — a pair of binoculars for wildlife watching from Zeiss — was won by 16-year-old Maitreya Sukumar. Prizes were given to 50 winners.

People from all age groups participated in the quiz, according to the foundation. There were seven rounds of 10 questions each on flora and fauna. For every question, participants had 20 seconds to guess the correct answer.

For instance, one of the questions was about a Frenchman who has a mammal, a fish and a bird named after him. The answer to this was Alfred Duvaucel.

Bikram Grewal, a Delhi-based author and ornithologist who was also the quiz master, said: “We received around 100 calls and messages from people saying they couldn’t join in and asked us if we could do it more often. We plan to increase the scale of the quiz next time.”